There won't be a lot of baseball to write about until Wednesday, when pitchers and catchers report to Mesa (Yay!), so let me tell you about today's experience trying to buy San Francisco Giants tickets for the Cub series there in September.
Selection was... well, it was virtually nonexistent. I figured after finding nothing much during the presale yesterday, that they were holding back tickets for the "official" first day today, but there weren't any lower-deck tickets to be had at all, for any of the four games.
This was the case even though on some of the individual game pages, "Lower Box" and "AAA Club" were offered as choices. But if you selected those sections, all you got was "View Reserved" or even standing room only.
I know the Giants have a lot of season ticket holders, and I also know they were given the right to buy some extra tickets before the hoi polloi. But complete sellouts or near-sellouts? This stretches credulity.
Or does it? David Brooks, a Washington-based columnist for the New York Times, today lamented the fact that even though he was excited about having a baseball team in town, and signed up for season tickets for the Nationals, that wasn't good enough to get him the seat location he wanted -- he wound up
Here's why, according to Nats president Tony Tavares:
Well, sure. This is just the way of the world, and baseball did set an overall attendance record in 2004, and if presales for teams like the Red Sox, Yankees and Giants are any indication, that record is going to fall in 2005.
Just a heads-up for those of you who are going to try to order Cub tickets thirteen days from now.